Overwatch Dev Tracker

Overwatch 2 is introducing the highly requested ping system to the game! We’re adding this quality-of-life feature because we are dedicated to improving players’ experiences and including the community in our development strategy. Let’s dive into the inspiration, goals, and an overview of the Overwatch 2 ping system! The inspiration behind the ping system came from a value the Overwatch team holds dearly: Every Voice Matters.

This is a core value at Blizzard, and the Overwatch team wanted to personify this value in our game. We wanted to create a system that would enhance voice communication as well as provide alternative ways to share information with your team,” says systems designer Gavin Winter. “One of our goals was to augment speech and give people a way to visually interpret voice communication. We also wanted to support all voices and create a system to communicate for players that would prefer to avoid voice chat.”

Your support has arrived!  
 
We are here to provide you with additional information following the most recent Developer Update with Game Director, Aaron Keller. The Closed PvP Beta is coming April 26th, and we have the answers to some of your burning questions!  
 

Q. How are Closed Beta participants selected? 
A. Beta testers are chosen based on a variety of factors, including (but not limited to) your Battle.net region, when you signed up, and your computer hardware specifications. We are also inviting select journalists and community contributors from around the world. 
 

Q. Do I need to own a copy of Overwatch 1 to access the Closed beta? 
A. Yes, you will need to own a Copy of Overwatch 1 to access the 1st Closed Beta.  
 

Q. I’m a console player, will I be able to play in the 1st Closed Beta? 
A. Our first Close...

Overwatch is evolving. In our first step towards increased communication and a consistent cadence of updates for our community, we are incredibly excited to share information about our plans for the upcoming months. We are changing our release strategy by decoupling Overwatch 2’s PvP and PvE experiences from one another to get new PvP content into your hands sooner, while we continue to work on PvE. Learn more about what’s happening through our most recent developer update with Game Director Aaron Keller: 

Closed alpha testing for Overwatch 2 PvP begins today in select regions, and includes Blizzard employees, Overwatch League pros, and a few other select groups to help us prepare for wider testing.

Then our first PvP Beta will begin in late April for PC in select regions. This closed beta will include a larger group of testers who we will ask to provide gameplay feedback. Our goal for this phase is to test our new features, content, and systems before...

The Overwatch Empowerment Cup is a place for women and other marginalized genders to compete and grow their skills in a safe environment. This is a community-led tournament and initiative sponsored by Vite Ramen, who are dedicated to being allies within the Overwatch community. Equity in esports has been a long-time value for Vite Ramen’s CEO Tim Zheng, a former Overwatch player with Aggie Gaming at the University of California-Davis. Every Overwatch Empowerment Cup organizer strives to provide the community with a space where players feel comfortable and can experience high-level competition. 

Presenting a brand-new era of competitive Overwatch, the Overwatch Empowerment Cup will host its first-ever tournament on February 26-27. Here's when you can tune in to watch the competition! 

Broadcast powered by ...

It was a long fall from Overwatch to Talon for Gabriel Reyes. The path from Solder 24 of Overwatch to Reaper of Talon was one of darkness, despair, and deception. To tell this haunting story, The Overwatch Team collaborated with community artist NIRA to create some haunting in-game sprays.  

NIRA joined us for an interview about their experience working with the Overwatch team on the ...

The reckoning draws near. Stalk amongst the shadows to reap limited-time rewards, including the Legendary Dusk Reaper skin.

From now until March 8, players will be able to earn a player icon, seven unique sprays, and Dusk Reaper (Legendary) for a total of nine new rewards.

• DEATH BECOMES YOU - Learn how to unlock rewards
• WATCH TO EARN - Earn special Reaper-themed cosmetics by watching Twitch streams
• CODE OF VIOLENCE - Learn more about the latest Overwatch short story

DEATH BECOMES YOU

Playing games in Quick Play, Competitive Play, and Arcade will earn you a limited-time player icon, a spray, and the Legendary Dusk Reaper skin, in addition to regular weekly rewards! Each win counts as two games.

...

The second Experimental Card Creator Cup is just around the corner! For the past week, players and teams have been diving into the whimsical and wild changes stacked within the new Creator Experimental Card. The teams have all signed up, and now it’s time to see who will climb to the top of the competition!  

To broadcast both the NA and EU regional tournaments, the Overwatch Team is partnering with both Overwatch League and Monkey Bubble.  

NA Broadcast powered by the Overwatch Team and the ...

Overwatch has teamed up with content creators to build the second Creator Experimental Card! This daring and wild experimental patch will feature updates, changes, and additions never seen in Overwatch before. We have given our creators complete freedom to turn the Experimental game mode into their sandbox and imagine their own versions of Overwatch. No hero will be left unchanged, and you may find some of their updates fresh and new... yet strangely familiar.  

An unexpected, but not unwelcome, development.  

Our group of content creators for this experimental card is as interesting and unique as their proposed changes. They include an incredibly diverse group of creators featuring professional Overwatch players, casters, and streamers. If you aren’t familiar with them, make sure to check out their channels and work! Here’s the lineup for the second-ever Creator Experimental Card:  

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Lunar New Year is a special time to pay homage to times past while celebrating the hope for a better future. This year is no exception for Overwatch as we look forward to the Year of the Tiger, and honor the beast symbolic for courage, respect, and momentous changes yet to come.

Lead concept artist David Kang and concept artist Tim Guo personified these symbols in their creative visions for the latest Legendary skins: Seolbim Mercy and Nezha Tracer.

Kang began the ideation for Seolbim Mercy by attempting to portray themes like beauty, grace, and royalty. One of Kang’s top priorities was to create a skin that honored Korean culture and Lunar New Year. “We are really proud of the Hanbok—a traditional Korean dress,” says Kang. “We wanted to create a Hanbok gown that would have been worn by royal...

’Tis the season for the coziest event in Overwatch! We’re introducing new festive, frigid, and fashionable cosmetics to turn every game into a winter wonderland. Some of the gifts you might find in your Loot Boxes include Snowman Wrecking Ball, Ice Wraith Genji, and Sleighing D.Va!

To celebrate the event, we teamed up with concept artists Morten Skaalvik and Yiming Liu, as well as senior concept artists Qiu Fang and Nesskain, to learn more about how these magical legendary skins came to life.

Snowman Wrecking Ball

The process of creating a new skin for any hero starts with an ideation phase. This is where Concept Artist, Morten Skaalvik, drafted the first version of Snowman Wrecking Ball. The ideation for this skin was chilly and snowy, with Wrecking Ball c...

Hanzo re-learned geometry just for this tournament.  
 

It's not quite Scatter Arrow, but you should check out the Creator Experimental Card that has completely turned the game upside down.  
 

This December 10-12 will be the first ever ...

The Experimental Card enables the Overwatch team to test out changes that are outside the scheduled patch cycle. This gives us a lot of creative freedom while not having to worry about completely shocking the retail game. We thought it would be a brilliant idea to extend that same creative freedom directly to our content creators and community.  

What an interesting hypothesis.   

Everyone is invited to check out our newest Creator Experimental Card beginning November 30, 2021, featuring over-the-top balance ideas coming directly from Overwatch content creators. Each of the following creators will submit wild, whimsical and, dare we say, wacky changes for any of the heroes within their role:  

• Violet—Support  
• Flats—Tank  
• Somjuu—DPS  

We are also teaming up with these creators to bring you a new competitive community tournament: Overwatc...

Introduction  

The Overwatch team hosted a live AMA on /r/Competitiveoverwatch to talk about the recent Overwatch League pro playtest. We welcomed Lead Hero Designer Geoff Goodman and Hero Designer Josh Noh to answer community questions about 5v5 and upcoming balance changes. In case you missed out, we’ve got you covered with all of the highlights below.

Hero Reworks Bastion and Sombra  

Overall, the team is happy with Bastion's current tool kit after the recent rework and is working on adjusting numbers to get him into a good place. Geoff Goodman replied to a question about Bastion's performance from u/BarstMain.

GEOFF GOODMAN: Sinc...

Saddle up and ride into action to earn new limited-time rewards, including the Sandstorm Cassidy skin.

From now until November 23, players will be able to earn a player icon, seven unique sprays, and Sandstorm Cassidy (epic) for a total of nine new rewards.

• WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE - Learn how to unlock rewards
• WATCH TO EARN - Earn special Cassidy-themed cosmetics by watching Twitch streams
• NEW BLOOD - Learn more about the latest Overwatch comic starring everyone’s favorite gunslinger

WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE

Playing games in Quick Play, Competitive Play, and Arcade will earn you a limited-time player icon, an Ana and Cassidy spray, and Sandstorm Cassidy, in addition to regular weekly rewards! Each win counts as two games.

...

As we introduce a new name, you might have the desire to do the same. Starting 22 October, 2021 and continuing through 5 November, 2021, all players will be offered a free BattleTag name change. This applies to anyone who does not currently have a free name change available. Existing name changes will not stack for future use.

Players can request a name change through this form. You will receive a notification once your request has been processed. Please allow up to four weeks for processing.

Thanks and we’ll see you in game!

The Overwatch Team

The spookiest event of the season has returned to Overwatch, bringing with it a slew of sinister new skins guaranteed to transform every battlefield into a graveyard smash. Some of the treats you might find in your Loot Boxes this Halloween include Echo’s blood-chilling Vampire Bat attire, a grim new getup for Bastion, and the styled-to-slay Vampire Hunter Brigitte.

To celebrate this frightful event, we caught up with concept artists Daryl Tan and Morten Skaalvik to discuss how they approached designing three of the latest Legendaries.

Halloween Terror gives the minds on the Overwatch team a chance to indulge their spookiest artistic senses. From ‘80s slasher flicks

...

Tired of lounging around at home? Have your local haunts become boring to visit? Looking to travel somewhere new without having to fight over photo-op spots and restaurant tables with flocks of fanny pack-wearing tourists? Look no further than Malevento—your next vacation destination.

While visiting Malevento, you can enjoy a late lunch accompanied by chilled white wine on a patio overlooking the verdant hills, watch hot air balloons alight above the countryside, stroll down cobblestone streets ensconced between rows of ivy-swathed buildings, and more. The town boasts a rich history (and even richer benefactors funding its recent reconstruction); there’s somewhere in Malevento for everyone to enjoy, whether they’re fast-paced flankers, heavy-hitting tanks, or environmental experts who prefer to play on the edge.

Catch up with Thomas, a senior level designer on the Overwatch team, to discuss the newest Deathmatch map: Malevento.

MAKE A SPLASH

Bon voyage! It’s time to celebrate summer with the ultimate getaway: the Overwatch Summer Games. Earn weekly rewards, get new cosmetics, and bring your A-game in the Lúcioball arena.

AMP IT UP

Overwatch’s futuristic spin on soccer is back! Team up to boop the ball into the opponent’s goal. The team that scores the most points before time runs out wins the game.

In 2014, the introduction to the world of Overwatch began with the fervent beat of a drum. As the screen flashed to an image of a frigid Russian warfront littered gun-toting militants and arachnid-like omnics, the music surged into a crescendo of heavy horns and distressed violins while a disembodied voice uttered a single word: Conflict.

We glimpsed havoc. Global devastation wrought by malevolent, seemingly unstoppable robotic entities. A world teetering on the brink of anarchy.

But, then, the music segued into a swell of triumphant trumpets. A new hope arose. For the first time, we saw the soldiers, scientists, adventurers, and oddities that comprise the ranks of the international task force we would come to know as Overwatch.

This first animated short—and the many that would follow it—was a marriage of visual and musical passion crafted by the artists and composers whose work on the many Overwatch cinematics has now be...

In the wake of the calamitous Omnic Crisis, the world is desperate for heroes more than ever. The young upstarts of the Deadlock Gang might not be the heroes the future-possible world of Overwatch needs, but they’re here, regardless, in all of their riotous gunslinging glory.

Deadlock Rebels is a novel set in the American Southwest of Overwatch during the years of turmoil that followed the Omnic Crisis that explores the founding of the notorious Deadlock Gang. Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe, an opportunistic young thief recently disinherited from her family’s fortune, teams up with local delinquent Jesse McCree and her omnic butler, B.O.B., for a cavalcade of capers.

The novel is written by author Lyndsay Ely, who was well-equipped wit...